Belclaire Apartments — Attraction in Dallas

If I was able to give this complex zero stars, I would, but alas one star will do fine. During my time at SMU, I lived at this apartment complex. What seemed to be the best option, money and location wise, was by far not the safest.

While living here, many ridiculous things and actions took place. The first of these is how awful the maintenance team is. My sink was clogged and I did everything, in my power, to unclog it. After many hours of trying to fix it, I decided to contact the maintenance team, after all that's their job. After putting in a request, I decided to focus back on other things. Time passed and nothing was done to unclog the sink. I waited and waited and still nothing.

Meanwhile, I had a car wreck in January of 2023, so I had to borrow a family member's truck to get back and forth from school and my apartment. I parked the truck inside the garage of the complex, not worrying about a thing, and the next morning, the truck was towed to a lot many miles from the complex. So, I called another family member to come pick me up and we set sail for the towing lot. We eventually found it and had to pay $100 to get the truck back, all because I did not have one of the stickers for residents. That same day, I visited the leasing office and told them I needed a new sticker, for the vehicle, so it would not be towed again. After getting the sticker and putting it on the truck's windshield, I went back to my unit and went on with my day.

Now, the apartment complex's gates are always, I mean ALWAYS, broken! There was only a brief time where these gates were functional and kept only residents inside. However, I was still driving the truck, mentioned above, and I parked it within the resident parking, with a resident parking sticker. I locked up the truck and went on with whatever I was doing. The next morning, I went to my parking space and turned the keys in the ignition. When I fired the truck up, it sounded very loud, like a race car. So, I turned off the vehicle and turned it back on. There it was again, VROOM! After doing some looking around the automobile, I found out that someone or some people had got into the parking garage and stole my catalytic converters, which a family member of mine had to pay $7,500 to fix! So, good job keeping the parking garage safe Mockingbird Flats! Your so called "third-party security team" is awful!

Going back to the sink issue, I was still waiting to hear back from the maintenance team. So, I submitted another request and more time passed by. After waiting a month, I went to the leasing office and demanded they would send up maintenance workers to fix it. The response I was given was, "Well, we do not have many maintenance workers and if you submit a request online, we will get back to you as soon as possible." I told the office worker that I had been waiting almost 2 months and nothing had been done. The worker just acted like it was nothing and after more complaining, a worker was finally sent up to fix the issue. Another time, my microwave, within the unit, decided to stop working and shot electricity out of the top and shocked me. Again, I filled out a maintenance request two times, for the "team" to fix it. The first time was on the 17th of July 2023 and the second was on the 9th of August 2023. Nothing was done between or after I put this requests in the system. So, I marched down to the leasing office, again, and demanded they send their workers to come up and fix it. I received the same answer as before and after much debating with the worker, the team finally, after many months, came and fixed the appliance.

During my last few months here, my HVAC system messed up and decided to heat, instead of cooling. Again, I put in another request for the team to fix the issue, but nothing was done. After speaking to the front desk, nothing was done. So, I put another request in, a few weeks later. Nothing happened. I finally went to the front office and explained the situation. They finally followed me up to my room and "fixed"...

Moved in 7/12/25 Moving out 9/26/25

Formal complaints are in process.

I do not usually write reviews, but my experience at this property has been unacceptable and unsafe. For transparency and protection, I am documenting everything here along with photo evidence.

Here is my documented experience as a resident: 1.) Elevators: Multiple periods of no working elevators. I live on the 4th floor with a disabled dog. And my disabled family member can’t visit…. This is a severe accessibility violation and a direct health/safety risk. With no timely updates or transparency on progress. This is costing me more money for my movers, and severely impacting my ability to get up and down safely. 2.) Stairwell Access: No accessible or clearly marked stairwell exits. When I attempted to use the stairwell, I found rocks and debris at the bottom, a serious tripping hazard during an emergency. Workers on the property and I took about 20 minutes to figure out where the nearest exit was when fire alarms were going off (fortunately there wasn’t a fire that time otherwise we would have been dead.) 3.) Fire Safety: Fire alarms went off for over two hours late at night without explanation. Combined with the smell of cigarette smoke in the building, this created a dangerous and stressful situation. 4.) Construction Hazards: Ongoing construction in the unit next to mine with zero communication from management. Noise levels made it impossible to work from home, and fumes/chemicals caused illness for both me and my pet. The workers left chemicals and debris on the ground that had affected my pet. 5.) Trash Enforcement: Neighbors leave trash outside their doors (with photo proof), yet no visible violation notices are issued. Meanwhile, I received a violation threat a few days after moving in for leaving a Whole Foods bag outside my door that I was just about to grab on my way out for work. The management team was banging on my door during work hours and a meeting was impacted due to that. The only reason it was there was because I was never provided a valet trash bin at move-in, nor told I was entitled to one, until after the violation threat. This is clear selective enforcement and appears discriminatory. After I told them I was a new resident and not a college student, they started treating me more professionally. 6.) Security Issues: Entering the building at night requires crossing unguarded, unsafe public areas. There is no consistent security presence at the main entrance, placing residents at unnecessary risk. 7.) Management: Instead of resolving issues, management has acted dismissively toward me as a paying tenant. Responding very late or sometimes not at all to my concerns. 8.) Move-In Condition: My unit was not properly maintained prior to move-in, requiring repeated maintenance requests that were poorly addressed. The day I moved in the movers and I walked into an infestation gnats that took me about two months to fully eradicate. I even had one of the maintenance pest people come to my house and he said that isn’t something they’re able to fix but he would suggest I put tape on my windows to cover up the holes where the gnats get in. But he said at this property unfortunately he gets this complaint a lot and the gnats never go away. He just tries to teach the tenants how to get less of them inside. It was so bad they would fly in my mouth as I would open my mouth to eat food.

I have been a tenant in multiple properties throughout my rental history and have never once filed a formal complaint until now. The fact that I am forced to document and escalate these issues speaks volumes about how poorly this property is managed. I will continue pursuing this through various channels set up to protect residents until...

Why you should/should NOT live here

The pros of this complex:

-Located near SMU -Has bus running literally right outside the complex -Close to food and uptown life -apartments themselves are very nice

The problems with this complex:

-Management is so, SO poor. More than half the people that work the front office are usually unable to answer basic questions such as "How much money do I owe on my water bill this month?" and "Why can I not pay my bills through the online portal?" even though they can pull up the information right on the computer. They just say "Well, just put in somewhere around $(x) and if it's too much then it will just carry over." That type of information doesn't help, I don't want to guess random numbers with my money especially if it is unnecessary. These questions pose some sort of mystery to the representatives that work the front office. It straight up comes down to employee incompetence.

-It also doesn't help that although there are usually 2-3 people working the front office at all times, nobody will answer the front desk phone. No matter how many times you call. I have even been in the presence of a representative near their desk and they will actively ignore the phone. These people's jobs are all about serving the residents that live here, yet that seems like none of their priorities. This shouldn't be happening.

-Half of the elevators do not work rarely EVER. I have lived in section A1 for about 3 months and more than half of this time, I have had to take a separate elevator up to floor 2 (the lawn area) then walk over to A1's staircase, then walk the remaining 3 flights up with whatever I need to use the elevator for (wheeling something up, groceries, inviting people over who get lost easily). It shouldn't even BE a problem that the elevators do not work on a daily basis. It has been 3 weeks in a row starting tomorrow that my elevator has not been running. Yes, I have complained about it already and it was supposed to be fixed over a week ago, yet no one in the office has gotten into fixing this yet. Again, incompetence.

-Reserved parking: what a complete joke. This complex has special "reserved parking" for those who want to pay a good amount extra every month just to park another 3 feet closer to the elevators, and roughly take up about 1/3 of the parking spots in the garages combined, more prominently on the higher garage floor. If you go in there and look, you will rarely see a soul using those spaces. There should not be reserved parking. Residents already pay $1500-$2,500 a month just to be here and have no elevators, just give us some damn parking spots.

-Maintenance lives an hour away from the complex. If you are having an issue with some device in your apartment or you are locked out, then good luck. Maintenance lives about an hour away from the complex and you are going to have to sit like a goose on some eggs waiting for the guy to show up. Why not pay someone who lives closer to represent the building? Makes no sense.

-Trash pick up: This complex forces you to pay a monthly fee for a trash service (although I just walk it down myself like a normal human being), but there comes certain criteria that determines if the guy will take your trash from your doorstep. If you haven't completely bagged an item, tied the bag, or even put the trash in the CORRECT trash can (yes, it has to be in the trash can they give you), they won't take it, will leave a note on your door, and sometimes fine you. Absolutely stupid. Oh, and they don't pick up trash on weekends, the time of week when you are mostly at home producing waste.

Please AVOID living here and live somewhere that respects you, not puts your complaints and needs on the back burner. Absolutely...